Villanova Game Thread

[muskieman]

When: Saturday, March 7, 12 PM

Where: Finneran Pavilion in Villanova, Pennsylvania.

TV: TNT and HBO Max with play-by-play Brian Anderson and analysis Grant Hill. Andy Katz is the courtside reporter.
Xavier Radio: 55KRC

Tune up loss before the BE Torney Team ranking give X a 16.8% chance at victory

[Kevin Reilly]

Well terrible start on the defensive end. Nova is scoring at will . Milicevic with a brutal start on both ends.

[muskieman]

Again, X players are playing; they have no idea. Filip caught the ball, faked a three-guy jump, and bangs into Filip, but instead of shooting the three-ball, he decided to drive and miss a jump shot. Could have been going to the line for three. Brennen is making X a one-shot down and then scoring and rebounding when Nova misses a jumper

Al Wright has been all wrong and contributed nothing

[muskieman]

Moore and Wright were non-factors for X, but their turnovers did help Nova and ... 2-10 from three. Richard claims we have been a poor defensive team this year.

[Kevin Reilly]

Well your not going to win many Big East games with a defense that is ranked 324th in Division 1. I heard on the Musketeer Report podcast that we have about 10 million N.I.L. money for next year. I also heard Rick say he only expects 3 to 4 current players will return . That surprises me. We have so far to go to even get decent in our own league. Losing Carroll is going to be hard to replace. This was a lost year with a poor roster. I think Pitino needs to really step it up. This year was not close to acceptable.

[yellow20xd]

Yes, it was a rough year... X needs more NIL money or it'll be a rinse and repeat year... Dan

[skyhops]

More NIL, but more important spending it wisely. Robinson was a waste of money and we really don't have a point guard or anyone that can guard at the BE level. The defensive effort has not been there from the beginning. Bad shots, no rebounding the list goes on. I give Richard a C- and that is generous.

[Kevin Reilly]

Skyhops giving Pitino a C- is very generous. We won 30% of our Big East games in a year when the Big East is down. I still can't believe that. According to the Podcast we spent over 5 million this year on N.I.L. money.. That is almost double what Miller had. Watching all the good teams on TV you can see how hard they play on defense. Duke, Michigan. Florida ( who will repeat this year ) Houston , Arizona, Kansas, U Conn with rosters full of 5 stars and 4 stars all play crazy defense. They chase all long rebounds, they dive on the floor for loose balls, they fight for rebounding position they deflect passes. On good teams if you loaf once on defense your coming right out of the game. I almost fell out of my chair when Moore fought thru a screen and deflected and stole the ball the first possession of the game. We played all year long like we were too good to scrap on defense. I know Milicevic improved a lot on offense but was there a worse defensive Big Man in college basketball? . We tried the Euro , finesse three point shooting team this year with terrible results. We start Pozzato, Milicevic and Wright next year and we will have the same results. As far as Pitino saying he is not interested in Providence I don't believe it. What can he say when asked? Yeah I'm very interested? LOL I don't think they want him. Like a lot of the people on this board I think we hired a guy who probably is looking at Xavier as a stepping stone. Not sure how you target and hire GM's and coaches who have their eye's on the transfer portal while you are currently playing. As far as my view we need a completely different way of conducting business. Which is what college basketball is now. Not sure if it's tampering or not but I am guessing you need to be connected to the agents who represent these semi professional players. If you wait for the leftovers that is what you get. Most of our team this year could be called projects or leftovers. Cruel but true. Something needs to change. I would give Pitino a D-. I know he got a late start but he really needs to pick it up

[muskieman]

Kevin, I wonder if that 10 million reported by some people is for men's and women's basketball? I would hope X could find more money than 10 for both sports.

What about baseball and other sports?

[skyhops]

Well said Kevin, that makes me nervous since you are usually the glass half full guy. 10 mill NIL according to Broering and he is usually fairly accurate. I’d take Wright back but needs to bulk up and maybe come off bench since House could be better. Jovan can jump and is lazy on D. An off season will help because he can shoot.